Toyota's Electric Prototypes To Be Ready Soon

Toyota Motor Corp. and Tesla Motors will reportedly develop pure electric prototype versions of the RAV4 and Lexus RX as part of a new partnership between the two companies.

Bloomberg Businessweek reported earlier today that Tesla will deliver the two prototypes by the end of this month.

“Toyota and Tesla engineering teams have made a lot of progress in a short amount of time,” noted JB Straubel, chief technology officer for Tesla.

Tesla and Toyota announced their partnership in late May. During June, Tesla became a publicly-traded company and its stock shot up 40% on the first day of trading, but has since returned to its starting point of $17.40 a share in the two weeks since the initial public offering.

“Tesla’s IPO has been frequently compared with that of lithium-ion battery maker A123 Systems, which debuted on the NASDAQ after much anticipation last September, but has fallen about 56% since,” noted the street.com.

A few weeks ago, Ford Motor Co. quietly announced that it was rolling out a new wrinkle to the powerful safety feature called stability control, adding even more lifesaving potential to a technology that has already been very successful.

A well-known automotive consultant who did an extensive teardown of BMW’s i3 all-electric car said its design is groundbreaking in multiple ways. “We’ve torn down about 450 cars, and we’ve never analyzed anything like this before.”

Focus on Fundamentals consists of 45-minute on-line classes that cover a host of technologies. You learn without leaving the comfort of your desk. All classes are taught by subject-matter experts and all are archived. So if you can't attend live, attend at your convenience.